Hasta La Gadget!

The Chinese government has accused the US of a torrent of hacking attempts, blaming hackers in the United States for nearly two-thirds of all cyber-terrorism made against the country. The Chinese Department of Defense and the Chinese military have together faced 144,000 hack attempts per month on average, the country’s Ministry of Defense said today, with spokesperson Geng Yansheng citing US IP addresses as the telltale giveaway for who was responsible.

Responding to a question about the supposed 61,000-plus strong cyber-terrorism squad China had reportedly gathered together to conduct internet espionage against the US, Canada, UK, France, and other countries, as well as extract trade secrets, Geng argued that China itself was just as much a victim. He claimed that over 1.7m attempts to crack Chinese government sites were observed in 2012 alone, and that attacks from the US accounted for 62.9-percent of the incidents.

Ironically, given the Chinese ministry’s apparent reliance today on IP addresses to blame US-based hackers, it’s only little more than a week since it dismissed suggestions that such identifiers were foolproof evidence. Back on February 20, a Chinese spokesperson blamed spoofed IP addresses for the country being falsely accused of making its own hack attempts.

According to Geng, the US’ pre-emptive plans for cyber-warfare – part of the response to various incidents around newspapers, American companies, and other organizations – “are not conducive to the joint efforts of the international community to enhance network security.” The Chinese government supposedly hopes that the US be “made to explain and clarify” its aggressive stance, the spokesman continued.

China has been named as the number one risk for cyber-attacks worldwide by various reports and investigations, with suggestions that both the Chinese military and local companies have been targeting foreign networks in an attempt to extract industrial secrets, among other things. In January 2012, the US government bolstered its Cyber Command division with new teams to go on the offensive when needed in the face of online warfare, as well as to defend essential and corporate systems within the country.

[via ZDNet]

China accuses US of systematic hacking is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I guess there is no need for any long winded title, especially when you consider how hacker collective Anonymous have had done their bit in the past to deface several websites before. In a nutshell, what goes around, comes around, and BBC News has reported that this week saw Anonymous suffer from “an embarrassing breach, as one of its popular Twitter feeds is taken over by rival hacktivists.”

The Anonymous Twitter hack came after a couple of other high-profile Twitter hacks that happened, including Burger King that tweeted a false dawn of rival McDonald’s purchasing it to deliver what we can presume to be McWhoppers, while Jeep’s Twitter feed too, was hacked, having seen its logo change, too. This is definitely highly preventable in the first place, and chances are the hack is a result of poor password practices.

Having said that, just how secure are your Twitter, email and online banking accounts? Do you use the same password across multiple accounts, or do you have that kind of eidetic memory that ensures you can throw in 16-character passwords that comprise of a mixture of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols which are different throughout all 10 accounts without batting an eyelid?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Chromebook Pixel Konami Code Easter Egg, Chrome Delivers Voice Recognition Capability To The Internet,

Apple has pushed out a new Java update to address the malware loophole that saw hackers attempt to extract data from the company, stripping out the Apple-provided browser plugin in the process. The update, which follows Apple’s confirmation that a “small number” of its systems had been compromised by an unknown hacking group, basically removes the Java applet plugin from all browsers on an OS X 10.7+ machine.

If the user subsequently wants to access Java applets, they’ll see a “Missing plug-in” warning in the page; clicking that will go to Oracle, to download the newest official version. In the process, the update also removes the Java Preferences application, which Apple says is no longer required.

The malware response follows the identification of several loopholes in Java, one of which allows the hackers to compromise some of Apple’s own systems. “Multiple vulnerabilities existed in Java 1.6.0_37,” the company writes in its security alert, “the most serious of which may allow an untrusted Java applet to execute arbitrary code outside the Java sandbox.”

A Java flaw is believed to have been at the root of Facebook’s hack incident earlier this month, with the social network’s own systems targeted. Oracle itself documented the problem back at the start of February, reacting to security warnings which saw several firms recommend all Java implementations be shut down as a precaution.

Apple maintains that “there was no evidence that any data left” the company, and has pushed out the new update as both a standalone patch and via the Software Update tool in OS X.

Update Java warns Apple after Mac hack is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier this morning we reported that allegations have surfaced that China was conducting cyber attacks against the United States. The alleged attacks were being conducted on American media companies and other businesses. Media companies including the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal have all said that they were the target of cyber attacks that originated within China.

Allegations have claimed that the Chinese government is supporting hacker groups within the country. The hacks are believed to have originated from a unit of the People’s Liberation Army called Unit 61398. China has dismissed the accusations of hacking against the US and other countries as “groundless.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has stated that he doubted evidence collected would withstand scrutiny. Hong also said that making groundless accusations based on rough material is “neither responsible nor professional.” Hong made these comments during a regularly scheduled news conference. China continues to maintain that it has also been the target of coordinated cyber attacks along with the United States and other countries.

Hong said that cyber attacks and cyber crimes within China “are rising rapidly every year.” China has also reiterated that it has laws that strictly outlaw hacking. The most recent allegations, which some call the most damaging ever against China, come from a security company based in Virginia called Mandiant Corp.

[via AP]

China denies hacking against the US is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It seems that every time Apple introduces a new version of iOS, it creates some new method to get past the software’s lock screen. A YouTube tutorial reveals the rather simple combination of button presses and fake emergency calls necessary to give you access to anyone’s iDevice — or more specifically to the iOS phone module, from where you can make calls or view and edit contacts. You’ll have to be quick-fingered, however, as you have to push the home button rapidly after getting into the iPhone’s contact list. You can learn how to do it after the break, but until Cupertino issues an update, we’d suggest keeping your beloved fondlephone close by.

Filed under: Apple

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Via: Gizmodo, S1riOS6 (Spanish)